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    "id": 698639,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/698639/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 262,
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    "content": "or a failure. The question is: Did we, as Senators, play our part rightfully? Unfortunately, history will not afford us the opportunity to explain ourselves. If people come to read that the reason devolution failed is because money was devolved, abused and misused and the body that was supposed to check that preferred never did anything, we will not be there to explain that we did not have oversight funds and people did not listen to us. So, it is incumbent upon us, as Senators, to stand up strongly, take our positions and use as much time as possible to do the right thing for this country. That is why I support that next week, let us be here and all gather together for the very important pieces of legislation that we need to put together and even reflect together as a House. It is important for us to question whether the dream of devolution is still on course. This is the dream to make this country great, take services and resources closer to the people and to manage them in a devolved way, rather than the centralised function that we are used before. Is this dream still on or has it been abused and wasted? What has been our position as a House? Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, these are very serious questions which, over time, we need to ask ourselves what is it that we did. When history is written, where will they place us? Did we stand up to fight for the people? When young children from extremely disadvantaged backgrounds cannot access education because a certain governor misappropriated funds to an extent that Early Childhood Development Education (ECDE) classes were never build; those children will be denied opportunity of standing here as hon. Senators and debate like us here. They will not have a chance to tell their story. Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, something challenged me this morning as I was listening to the radio. There was a story of a pregnant lady who trekked for three days looking for water. She hails from one of these extremely marginalized counties where water is scarce. She was complaining that she had not seen her baby of two weeks for those days. She was wondering whether the baby had eaten or not. She had to make a hard choice. If she stays at home with the children, they would still die anyway because of lack of water. So, she decided to look for water. Looking at such a county government, I wonder what they prioritise. Our children depend on us, as a House, to articulate their issues. This is an important season we are going into. It is high time that we reflected further and questioned ourselves; how can we tighten the loop of pilferage of public funds that is so exorbitant, so obvious and so clear? Some of us sit in committees where petitions are brought by residents and we study them. You can see clearly that while the law may provide for some loopholes, any straightforward person can see this money was lost. However, we do not have any individual charged up to date. We want to highlight about the Judge or Magistrate in Nyeri who last week sent one county official to prison because of abuse of public office and public funds. That is such a small number, especially when you know what is happening in counties. While there are success stories, there are things that break our hearts as leaders. We need to fix those things. As we get close to 2017, we know one of the seats that will be hotly contested is the governor’s. We need to answer some questions. Is it that we have left the loopholes so open that everybody now wants to be a governor so that they The electronic version of the Senate Hansard Report is for information purposes only. A certified version of this Report can be obtained from the Hansard Editor, Senate"
}